


First moments of freedom.

by Chromite



Series: Tales of the Rebellion [7]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Aftermath of the Diamond attack, Emotions, Right after the end of the rebellion, Starts during the Diamond attack, rose's point of view, thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:49:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22352107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chromite/pseuds/Chromite
Summary: This story is written from the point of view of Rose Quartz AKA Pink Diamond. The Diamonds unleash a terrible force on Earth. Experience what she felt and thought during the attack and the first moments after it.
Series: Tales of the Rebellion [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1309622
Kudos: 3





	First moments of freedom.

>I crouched on the battlefield, quickly pulling Pearl and Garnet into my arms as the world around us grew brighter, the lights I saw in the sky growing larger, drawing ever closer.   
>Even with my shield to my back to help cover us, the force of the impact I feel is immense enough to make us slide in the dirt a few inches. The ringing from my shield is mixing with the sound of the screams of the gems close by, and another sound as well, voices I hoped to never hear again. It's a cacophony of agony, the mixture of Blue's, White's, and Yellow's voices mixing with the tortured wails of the gems that I couldn't reach. I can feel Garnet and Pearl shaking in my arms, Garnet more than Pearl. I pray that she doesn't unfuse, if she does, Ruby or Sapphire might be thrown out of my protection. I don't know for sure what's happening beyond my shield, but I don't want either of them subjected to it.   
>The sounds of screaming are dying down. Some of them simply stop short, but other voices.......they start to sound wrong. Like their voices are being twisted into something not quite themselves before they go silent, replaced by the sound of their forms dissipating. I wish I could have helped more. I wish I had seen this coming. White, Blue, Yellow.......their voices are still echoing strong. I can feel the tears in my eyes growing stronger. Where the ground was barren under me before, grass has started to grow where my tears are touching the soil. I know my tears are partially because of Blue, but they're also a reflection of my own sorrow, a reflection of my dread for what's happening to the companions outside my protection. I hope they'll be okay. They HAVE to be okay, right?  
>The sound of White's, Blue's, and Yellow's voices are dying down. The reverberations from my shield have stopped. The world around me is starting to become visible once more. Whatever they did, it's finally coming to an end. The world around me, Pearl, and Garnet is growing silent as the last of the gem screams fade away into dissipation explosions. The silence itself feels wrong, like a bad dream, a living nightmare. With a vain hope, I pinch myself, hoping to wake up......but the pain in my arm tells me what I experienced was no dream. It really happened. Why? Why couldn't they just leave and let us live in peace? What did they hope to accomplish with that attack of spite?  
>The silence around me has become too much to bear. Pearl and Garnet are still shaking in my arms. I can see now that Garnet is just barely holding it together. I run my fingers through both of their hair, and tell them it's all over now. That whatever that was is finished. I unsummon my shield and stand up, releasing my hold on them. Garnet unfuses almost immediately after I let her go, leaving Ruby and Sapphire standing before me. Sapphire is clearly shaken, she's keeps whispering about how she should have seen it coming, and how much the screams are haunting her mind. Ruby is doing her best to console her. It's the first time in three hundred years that I've seen them separate against their will. It hurts, to see Sapphire so upset. If I had told her what I was, who I was, could this have been foreseen and prevented?   
>I look over to Pearl. She's looking at me with large watery eyes, tears still rolling down her cheeks. Her hands are covering her mouth and her whole body is shaking. I think she wants to scream about what just happened, wants to scream at me. But the order of silence I placed on her, to never speak of who I really am, is preventing her. I feel a pang of guilt in my form. Would it be better if I freed her from her oath, and let her vent? Looking over to Ruby and Sapphire, I push the notion away. There's no telling what the full extent of the damage from White's, Blue's, and Yellow's attack is. I'll need Ruby, Sapphire, and Garnet's help if we're to understand what really happened, to deal with the aftermath. When we have a better understanding of what happened, maybe.......maybe I'll tell her, and free Pearl of her oath.   
>Ruby and Sapphire have calmed down a little now. They haven't fused back together yet, Sapphire is still too uncertain of things to create a stable fusion. Pearl's hands have lowered back to her sides, her tears have slowed down considerably. My own cheeks are starting to dry up. We all know what we have to do now. We need to start looking for our companions, and the gems that Homeworld left behind. If they're hurt, they need to be healed as soon as possible.  
>We're staying together as we explore the battlefield around us. Ruby, Sapphire, and Pearl are following my example and picking up the gems around us. I examine each one carefully, looking for any signs of cracks or chips. A few of the gems have them, a quick teardrop making the damage vanish instantly. I can't help but remember how far my powers have come, since the day I.......I hurt my first Pearl by mistake.   
>I never told the other Diamonds about my ability to heal, because it didn't work entirely. Her left eye is still gone, even as she stands under White's control now. My healing has grown stronger since then, serving me and my troops well, keeping those that didn't shatter in fighting form. I wonder if they'd come back if they realized I was healing every gem that cracked from their attack. I'm almost relieved their attack didn't do more, and surprised. For all their power, I expected far worse.   
>I wrote it off too soon. Pearl and Sapphire froze in place when we saw it, Sapphire literally having her feet encased in ice from her emotions. Ruby immediately summoned her gauntlet, the ground scorching under her feet. I simply looked on in disbelief. Before us, was a creature, large, down on four legs, three horns on her head, a long white mane stretching from her head all the way down to her white tail. At first, I thought it was a strange new Earth creature, but,.......then it looked toward us and snarled. In the light, a gemstone shined on her chest, hexagonal and vaguely similar to one I knew. It was a Biggs Jasper, not mine, not the one that was so popular among my troops but.......I couldn't believe it. She was twisted beyond what she was suppose to be. Seeing her like this.......is this what the Diamonds had meant to do?   
>There was no time to really think. The creature that was the Jasper came charging after us. Ruby hesitated for a moment, but she charged forward to meet her. Her fist connected with the Jasper's face, but it was Ruby that went sliding back. The Jasper merely stopped and shook her head, and let out a roar. I could hear the misery and fury in her monstrous voice. I could feel her suffering. It broke something inside me. I couldn't let her suffer like that any longer.  
>I drew my sword from its sheath and charged towards her, leaping into the air. Ruby recovered from the slide back she took, and charged again, drawing the Jasper's attention. I didn't slow my descent. I came down on her, full force, with one quick slice to her back. She never saw it coming. The Jasper's monstrous form dissipated, more forcefully than any other dissipation I've ever felt. Her gemstone hit the ground after what felt like one hundred years of falling.  
>We all looked at the gem for a moment, lying of the ground. Pearl and Sapphire looked at the gems they had gathered in their arms warily. Pearl was the first one to whisper out. "Rose......isn't there anything we can do to....to help them?"  
>I told her I didn't know, but that I'd try. In the back of my mind, I knew I owed it to them to try as I picked up the Jasper's gem off the ground. She was a Quartz, she'd be back sooner than any of the other gems we had gathered so far. If it was going to work, we'd know the soonest with her. I cupped my hands around her gem and let my tears flow freely. Her gem was quickly submerged. I let her gem sit in my tears until the tears had all dripped through the spaces between my fingers. I hoped it would be enough to help her.  
>Her gemstone glowed brilliantly before us as it floated in the air. It.....it's working! She's reforming! She looks like she's coming back in her normal form! Wait.....no. No! She's twisting again?! Why?! Why didn't my tears work?! I look on in sorrow as her form twists back into the monstrous version it was. I reluctantly draw my sword again and ready myself. As soon as she reforms, I cut her down again. I'm crying again, I couldn't help her. The time in my tears weren't enough.   
>"We don't have time to try something else." I spoke hastily, realizing the other gems we were gathering were likely just as twisted. "We need to contain them for now, all of them, until we can try to heal them properly." I summoned a bubble around the Jasper's gemstone and tapped it. We had bubbled gems before, they should be safe enough back at our base camp, until we can try to heal them again.   
>We started gathering the gemstones around us faster, all four of us bubbling and sending them off as we started to spread out on the battlefield. If all the gems that I didn't protect were now monsters.......it meant we were the only ones left. Me, Pearl, Ruby, and Sapphire. No......no that's not true. There's still one more. I started to think about her, about Bismuth. We had fought over her newest weapon. It still repulses me what she wanted to do. Shattering other gems intentionally......it was too horrible. Nobody deserves to suffer that fate. But.......would it have been better if I had let her make more? If we had armed our troops with Breaking Points, and taken the fight to the Diamonds like she wanted.......would it have worked? White's powers are horrible, but even she couldn't control a whole army at once. If we had taken her by surprise.......  
>No. No, if we had used the Breaking Points at all, she'd have been expecting an ambush. White would have prepared for an ambush. Blue and Yellow would have rushed to create their own. Casualties would have increased during the war at best. I would have......I would have had to tell her the truth about me. She would have told the rest of them. I didn't want that. I didn't want gems feeling like they had to follow me. They might have attacked us like this sooner. At least this way......their gems still exist. Someday, somehow, I'll heal them from the damage the other Diamonds inflicted on them.   
>I pause for a moment to look around the battlefield. This war, it cost us a lot. Gems on both sides were broken, and now some are mere monsters. But looking at the lovely sight of the sun rising over the battlefield, at the wondrous mix of orange, yellow, blue, and pink in the sky.......I feel a peace coming over me. We'll all be free together someday, I know it. It will all be worth it when that day comes. I'm certain I'll find a way to save them, with Garnet and Pearl's help. Then maybe........maybe I can let Bismuth free and......and tell them all the truth. Yes, when our friends and our enemies that were left behind are healed......I'll tell them all the truth. I swear I will.


End file.
